At a press conference this morning the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) will announce their much-anticipated “top 40 essential projects programs, and policies.” This “Blueprint for Better Biking” was determined from a survey of over 900 Portland cyclists back in spring of 2004.

From that survey, the BTA says 4 main areas of concern emerged:

Cycling in traffic

Connectivity (of the bikeway network)

Motorist behavior

Quality of the facilities

Taking these concerns into account, the BTA whittled down an initial list of 400 project suggestions down to 40. Among the top 40, they have also designated a “Top 10″ of the absolute highest priorities on the list.

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Comments

Steve LongOctober 7, 2005 at 8:15 am

Here’s a question. Who is it that’s teaching our kids to ride there bikes as if they were pedestrians? The majority of the kids I see riding bikes, ride them against traffic as if they were pedestrians. This is the most dangerous way to ride a bike there is. For instance, when a motorist exits a place of business turing right with the flow of traffic, invariably, they look to their left and not to their right before entering the flow of traffic. Why do they do this? Because they don’t excpect anything to be coming from the opposite direction on wheels. How do we get this into the project’s list of priorities?

Part of the problem that Steve referred to is the lack of attention by motorists. Every motorist should be looking left AND right whenever entering a crosswalk (BEFORE driving into it) or any place a pedestrian could be. If they’re looking for pedestrians, they’re sure to see riders on bikes. Young kids riding little bikes would not go much faster than a pedestrian.